BPA makes good on promise to mitigate overcutting of powerline plants in Bethany

View full sizeDana Tims/The OregonianContract crews have planted dozens of new shrubs and small trees beneath a BPA high-voltage powerline in the Bethany area. The replantings are intended to compensate for overcutting of shrubs beneath the line in February.

It may not hold the romance of swallows returning to San Juan Capistrano, but residents here are thankful that scores of trees and shrubs erroneously removed by BPA contract crews in February have finally been replanted.

"It will never really be the same, because we can't have anything that will exceed 10 feet in height at maturity,'' said Lori Manthey-Waldo, whose house backs up to a neighborhood park running east-west beneath the power line. "But at least there is vegetation there again."

Manthey-Waldo and other area residents complained several months ago, when they realized that crews clearing the corridor of vegetation encroaching beneath the line apparently had cut far more plants and trees than was warranted.

Under an agreement reached between the parties, a contractor purchased a total of 197 plants and shrubs for replanting at a total cost of $6,914, said BPA spokesman Doug Johnson. BPA footed the bill.

In addition to the dogwoods, the varieties of plants that are now growing along the powerline corridor include Oregon grape, Rosa rugosa and red currant. All of the replanted species are native plants.

Bob Wayt, a park district spokesman, said his agency reviewed the situation and is pleased with the outcome.

A breakdown in communication between the BPA and the contractor led to the overcutting, Johnson said at the time.

The federal agency said the clearing was needed to comply with new federal rules pertaining to transmission-line owners. To avoid the massive power outages that swept across the Northeast in 2003 -- outages traced almost exclusively to trees coming in contact with high-voltage lines -- revised rules now require a 25-foot safety zone between lines and the trees and brush beneath and around them.

The mitigation efforts, while not able to fully restore what was in the area prior to the clearing, are nonetheless welcome.

"I've heard a lot of people walking through the park saying, 'They're back. What a relief,'" Manthey-Waldo said. "There's certainly a sense of relief."